“Monty’s been meaning to do this for a long time,” Inara said, looking at Magdalene coming up towards them. “We make the delivery, and then we all get paid.”

“Good.” Jayne nodded approvingly. “Could do with some extra coin.”

“I wonder if it’ll be enough for the de-oxidiser?” Kaylee considered idly, Bethany holding her hand.

“Well, Cap ain’t getting a share,” the big man replied. “He’s too busy with Freya, getting his –“

“Jayne.”

“Uncle Mal ’n’ Auntie Freya?” Bethany asked, her eyes wide. “What they doing?”

“Resting, honey,” Kaylee said, swinging her daughter up into her arms and glaring at Jayne. “They’re having a nice rest. So we’re gonna do the work instead.”

“Beth’ny can help.”

“You gonna lug them crates outside, eh, short stub?” Jayne asked, his face softening as he looked at the little girl.

“Strong.” She held out an arm, bent at the elbow as she’d seen Jayne do more than once.

Jayne felt her little muscles. “Hell, you could take me any day,” he agreed.

“Hell, yes,” she said, and giggled.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t know in what context to use language like that,” Simon said, stepping onto the bridge and sighing heavily.

“Hey, ain’t my fault she picks up everything,” Jayne said, hitching his thumbs in his belt. “Man can’t go round watchin’ every word he says.”

“Some thought would be good.”

“Doc, I could teach her words’d make even your hair curl.”

“Don’t even think about it.”

Hank turned from where he was making final course corrections. “So who are we delivering to?”

“Someone called O’Malley. Monty said he was glad to take these particular items off him. And for a good price.” Inara smiled, feeling amazingly self-satisfied.

“He’s gonna be waiting for us?”

“He has an office at the docks. All we have to do is go there, tell him we’ve arrived, and get paid.”

Simon stirred uneasily. “You know, he sounds very similar to Badger.”

“Then we’ll go armed.”

“Weren’t planning on leaving home without one of the girls,” Jayne said firmly.

“We’ll need to wrap up well,” Hank said. “The town’s heading to winter. Not like Lazarus.”

“Won’t be that long to worry, and we won’t all be going anyway,” Zoe said, standing next to Hank. “Just Jayne and me.”

“Aw, don’t I get to come?” Hank asked plaintively.

“No, dear. We don’t want O’Malley getting too scared.”

“Scared? Of me?”

“Hell, I wouldn’t want to meet you on a dark night,” Jayne joked.

“Hell, no,” Bethany put in.

---

“Vandal.”

Mal looked over at Freya, leaning on the table. Her skin was taking on a tanned hue in the warm sunlight, and it suited her.

“What?” he asked, all innocent, hiding the knife behind his back.

“You were defacing that tree,” she said, nodding towards his handiwork. “I thought only Jayne did things like that.”

“Ouch. That is so not fair. Comparing me to that man.” He grinned. “’Sides, I wasn’t defacing. I was … enhancing.”

Freya’s eyebrows raised. “Enhancing?”

“Come see.”

She walked a little unsteadily towards him and he realised she wasn't using her stick.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Mmn? Oh. Yeah. I'm trying to make do with not … I don’t want to get to rely on it.”

“Frey, if you need it, use it.”

“I'm okay.” She put her hand on his shoulder then looked at the tree. “Oh.”

Mal had cleared a small area of bark, and on the fresh wood had carved a double heart. Already inside was the letter M and the number 4. “See, I was figuring this’d be kinda our tree,” he explained, shining with all the excitement of youth. He lifted the knife and began to work on the downward stroke of the next letter.

“Our tree.” She watched as he added two horizontal lines. It became, quite clearly, an F. “How old are you?” she asked, smiling.

He grinned. “Did this once before.”

“Oh?” She put her arm around his waist. “Who was this woman? I’m assuming it was a woman.”

“It was. A girl, though, truth be told.” Mal tidied the letters up. “A girl I adored from afar. It occurred to me maybe carving our names on a tree’d make her more … amenable.”

“Did it?”

His grin grew wider. “Let’s just say that was a good summer.”

“You old romantic. Although I'm not at all sure I'm happy with you consorting with other females.”

“I’d not met you, ai ren.” He closed the pocket knife and put it away, turning to face her. “Ain't no-one since I’d ever consider vandalising a tree for.”

She smiled. “That’s nice.” She kissed him, just a soft press of lips to lips. “How old was this love of your young life?”

“Sixteen. Same as me.”

“So not your first.”

“Ah, no,” he admitted. “But far as I'm concerned, you’re my first, last and only.”

“You’ve been taking lessons on pretty talking from our young doctor?”

“Only if I feel like putting my foot in my mouth.”

“He’s got a lot better.”

“Still manages to offend Kaylee once in a while.”

“That’s because make-up sex can be so good.”

Mal snuggled closer. “You saying he does it deliberate?”

“Sometimes.”

“Boy has some good ideas.” He dropped his head to kiss her properly.

“So you’re going to pick a fight just so we have make-up sex?” she asked when he let her up for air.

“Do I need to?”

“No.” She smiled wider and took his head in her hands, running her fingers through his thick hair.

He groaned a little and bunched up the soft folds of the skirt she was wearing. “Gotta thank Inara,” he muttered.

“What for?” Freya’s voice was slightly muffled from where she was giving him a lovebite on his neck. She sucked harder.

“Hey!” He drew in a breath. “Just for letting you wear some of her stuff. Gives me … um … gives me better access.”

Freya looked into his eyes, her own twinkling. “Is that all you ever think about?”

“You’re the one marking your territory!”

“True.” She pressed against him, feeling the rough fabric of his pants against her bare legs. “You going to do something about it?”

“Oh, yes.” He lifted her up, moving her back until she sat on the very edge of the table. Then he went down onto his knees. “Anyone comes, you tell ‘em I'm checking you for sunburn.” He grinned then tossed her skirt over his head.

She laughed out loud, looking down at the shrouded figure of her husband. “Mal, that’s not where I get … oh.” Her breath caught and she leaned back on the table. “Oh, Mal.”

---

The man at the desk smiled at Zoe and Jayne. “Welcome. Please, come in.” He didn’t look like Badger, being cleaner, as well as better dressed and spoken, but there was something about him that seemed familiar. Maybe it was the half dozen men standing conspicuously armed around the place.

Zoe stepped forward. “O’Malley?”

“Possibly.”

“We’re here to do business, not play games. Are you O’Malley?”

The man smiled. “Well, O’Malley had a little accident. He’s … indisposed. But I’m standing … sitting in for him.” This seemed to amuse him.

“And you are?”

“Rankin.”

“Is that meant to mean somethin’” Jayne asked.

“Oh, you are good.” Rankin nodded. “Very good.”

Jayne glanced at Zoe. Something was going on here, and it didn’t feel right.

Serenity’s first mate decided to stick to the job in hand. “We’ve got your … O’Malley’s goods.”

“He won’t actually be needing them.” Rankin held up a hand to forestall any comments. “I, on the other hand, will take them.”

Zoe shrugged. “Fine. Long as we get paid, not sure we’re worried about who gets them.”

“Oh, you’ve misunderstood. I’m not paying for them.”

Jayne bristled. “You saying you -”

“This isn’t about money. Well, not entirely.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re Monty.” A small guy with bad breath leaned in towards Jayne.

“Nope. Just doing a job for him.”

“You ain’t Monty?”

“I just said that, didn’t I?”

“These’re Monty’s goods. You say you’re working for Monty. Only from what I hear tell, Monty’s a big guy with a beard. You’re a big guy with a beard. Monty gypped us. I say you’re Monty and we’re gonna take it outta your hide.”

“Jinx.” Rankin shook his head. “That is not the way we do business.”

The man called Jinx stepped back, but kept his eye on Jayne.

“Look, I don’t know what you think you’re playin’ at, but we came to deliver Monty’s goods. And get paid.”

“Paid. You took us for a fair amount of money, Monty. More than those goods are worth. Money you still owe us.”

“I told you, I ain’t Monty.” Jayne was getting riled.

“There’s no point in you denying it. Besides, we have what we want.” Rankin looked over Jayne’s shoulder to where a man had just come in. Their eyes met briefly. “We have your ship, Monty.”

“You … what?”

Zoe put her hand on his arm. “What do you mean?”

“We’re not stupid. We watched you land. As soon as you left my men went on board, took over. And if we don’t get our money back within twenty-four hours, we will sell it.”

Jayne was barely holding himself back from drawing his gun and taking them out. “It ain’t yours.”

“It is now.” Rankin sat back, his hands clasped in front of him.

“It’s our ship,” Zoe said darkly. “We don’t know what beef you have with Monty, but it ain’t any of our affair. We did what we were employed to do. Anything else is between you and Monty.”

Rankin smiled. “Twenty-four hours. Or she goes for scrap.”

to be continued